PDSI v. Peterson

• Decision Date: 11 August 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-0260.,03-0260.
• Citation: 685 N.W.2d 627
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court
• Parties: P.D.S.I. (3M Midwest Drivers) and Travelers Insurance Company, Appellants, v. Carolyn PETERSON, Surviving Spouse of Wayne Peterson, Appellee.

685 N.W.2d 627

P.D.S.I. (3M Midwest Drivers) and Travelers Insurance Company, Appellants, v. Carolyn PETERSON, Surviving Spouse of Wayne Peterson, Appellee.

No. 03-0260.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

August 11, 2004.

William D. Scherle and Aaron T. Oliver of Hansen, McClintock & Riley, Des Moines, for appellants.

Thomas J. Reilly of Thomas J. Reilly Law Firm, P.C., Des Moines, and E.J. Kelly and Erin Q. Pals of Hopkins and Huebner, P.C., Des Moines, for appellee.

LAVORATO, Chief Justice.

The interim workers' compensation commissioner (commissioner) found that claimant's husband died from a work-related heart attack. The commissioner granted claimant death benefits but denied her claim for penalty benefits. The employer and its insurer sought judicial review in the district court and the claimant cross-appealed. The district court affirmed on both appeals. The employer and its insurer appeal from that decision, and the claimant cross-appeals. We affirm.

I. Background Facts.

Wayne Peterson was an over-the-road truck driver for P.D.S.I., which leased drivers to 3M Companies to haul 3M's freight. Peterson spent five to six days per week on the road with a driving partner.

Peterson and Russell Mersman were driving partners and had been such for two years. The drivers were paid by the hour and by the mile, so Peterson and Mersman tried to keep the truck running twenty-four hours per day because that is how they and the company made the most money.

The pair followed a regular routine when they were on the road together. The drivers changed at 4 a.m., 12 noon, and 8 p.m., and each driver would drive for an eight-hour shift with time off for sleeping and eating meals.

On October 12, 1997, Peterson and Mersman started their final road trip together. They met in Ames to pick up the first trailer to deliver. According to Mersman, it was an average week, and they were not under any particular scheduling or delivery pressure. Early in the week, Peterson had complained to Mersman that he was experiencing cold symptoms, including chest congestion, and that he did not feel well. Despite these symptoms, Peterson maintained the normal driving routine he and Mersman had established for themselves for the prior two years.

The evidence shows that on October 16, Peterson was off duty 5.5 hours, he was in the sleeper berth for 11 hours, he drove 6.5 hours, and he was on duty but not driving for 1 hour. On that day he drove 377 miles, which was within the normal range expected of a professional over-the-road truck driver.

Some time before 2:30 p.m. on the 16th, Peterson telephoned the company dispatcher, Lee Olson. Olson's telephone log noted the following:

Wayne Peterson at Greenville said he wasn't feeling good yesterday and not much better today. Has lung congestion and coughing a lot. Thought it might have been something to do last week with a drop and hooking of trailer, or it might be from when they were broke down on the road and were in a wet, cold type of weather and maybe it's cold from that. He didn't ask to get switched through to Jan to report it. When I asked him if he wanted to report it, he said he'll see how he feels later on, or might have to get off in Des Moines en route to Hutch.

According to Olson, he said to Peterson during that call:

"If you're feeling sick in any way, I need you to go right now, get to any medical facility you want to, the soonest one and get checked out and call and give us an update of what is going on with you." As a dispatcher, Olson had company authorization to give drivers permission to seek necessary medical treatment.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. on the same day, Peterson again telephoned the company dispatcher. Olson's log noted the following:

Wayne Peterson en route from Decatur to Hutch on Route 155 at Cornersville, TN complaining of shortness of breathing and breath problems. Said same occurrence at Greenville yesterday but not as bad as today. Will get off in Des Moines on Friday and get to the doctor for observation and call us with update of his condition. Mersman will single tail end of route.

During this second call, Olson said, "Wayne, you have the right[,] right now [,] to go to any medical facility and get checked out. You should do that." Peterson said he would ride it out until he reached Des Moines.

Following this conversation, Peterson drove from 3:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., when they reached Marion, Illinois. From 8 p.m. until 9 p.m., Peterson and Mersman were off duty and ate dinner together at a truck stop in Marion. At 9 p.m., Peterson went to the sleeper berth.

Sometime during the early morning hours of the 17th, Peterson emerged from the sleeper. According to Mersman, Peterson was sweating profusely and having trouble breathing. Peterson said, "I'm sick. I got to get to the hospital." Mersman drove five miles to a truck stop in Kingdom City, Missouri, where an attendant called 911 and requested an ambulance. After the ambulance arrived, paramedics transported Peterson to Callaway Community Hospital in Fulton, Missouri. Later, Peterson was flown to the University Hospital at Columbia, Missouri for cardiac care.

At the latter hospital, Peterson was diagnosed as having suffered a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Despite efforts to treat Peterson, he died five days later on the 22nd. The cause of death was listed as septic shock, extensive bilateral pneumonia, and secondary cause as acute myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock.

II. Proceedings.

Peterson's widow, Carolyn Peterson (claimant), filed a workers' compensation petition on September 9, 1999, against P.D.S.I. and its insurer, Travelers Insurance Company (collectively "employer"). The petition alleged the claimant was entitled to death benefits as a result of "her husband's work-related death." Later, the claimant filed an amended petition seeking penalty benefits for benefits unreasonably delayed or denied. She alleged she had not received any payments in the two years and ten months since her husband's death.

The deputy commissioner who heard the matter awarded the claimant the following benefits: .714 weeks of temporary total disability benefits ($599.88 per week) for the time the decedent was hospitalized prior to his death, death benefits ($599.88 per week for life or until remarriage), medical expenses ($2,309.00), and burial expenses ($2,845.75). See Iowa Code §§ 85.27, .28, .31, .33 (2001). The deputy also ordered the employer to pay $12,000 to the Second Injury Fund of Iowa. See id. § 85.65. Accrued benefits were to be paid in a lump sum with interest. See id. § 85.30. The deputy denied the claimant's request for penalty benefits. See id. § 86.13.

The employer appealed the deputy's decision to the Iowa workers' compensation commissioner. The claimant cross-appealed, contesting the award of medical expenses based on a scrivener's error. She further contested the denial of penalty benefits.

The commissioner corrected the amount of medical expenses, increasing it to $65,594.25, but otherwise affirmed the deputy's decision.

The employer filed a petition for judicial review, challenging the commissioner's decision awarding death benefits, and the claimant cross-appealed the decision denying penalty benefits. The district court affirmed the commissioner's decision on the appeal and cross-appeal.

The employer appealed and the claimant cross-appealed. We set out additional facts in connection with the issues we discuss.

III. Issues.

An employee with a pre-existing heart condition or defect may recover for a heart attack occurring on the job upon a showing of legal and medical causation. Riley v. Oscar Mayer Foods Corp., 532 N.W.2d 489, 492 (Iowa Ct.App.1995). Proving both prongs establishes that the injury arose out of the employment. A claimant establishes legal causation under any one of the following circumstances:

(1) [when] heavy exertions ordinarily required by the job are superimposed on a defective heart, aggravating or accelerating the previous condition; (2) unusually strenuous employment exertion is superimposed on a preexisting diseased condition; or (3) damage results from continued exertion required by the employment after the onset of the heart attack symptoms.

Wilson v. Good Will Publishers, 671 N.W.2d 479, 480-81 (Iowa 2003). We have found medical causation when the employee's continued driving after the onset of his symptoms materially aggravated and accelerated the impact of the myocardial infarction. Varied Enters., Inc. v. Sumner, 353 N.W.2d 407, 410 (Iowa 1984).

Although the claimant must establish both legal and medical causation, we limit our discussion to the legal causation issue because the employer concedes medical causation exists. There was evidence from two medical experts that Peterson suffered his myocardial infarction while on the road on October 16. Additionally, these experts opined that Peterson's continued driving after the onset of heart attack symptoms materially and substantially aggravated his myocardial infarction and thus was a significant causal factor in his death.

At issue in this appeal is the third test for legal causation: damage results from continued exertion required by the employment after the onset of heart attack symptoms. Concerning this test for legal causation, the commissioner relied on Varied Enterprises, Inc. v. Sumner, 353 N.W.2d 407 (Iowa 1984). In Varied Enterprises, the claimant — an over-the-road truck driver — suffered a myocardial infarction while driving a truck pursuant to his employment.

The issues in Varied Enterprises were whether there was substantial evidence to support the commissioner' s findings that (1) the claimant felt impelled to continue driving despite his physical discomfort because of his concern about the effect of lost time on his probationary status with his employer, and (2) the claimant's actions in continuing to drive after the onset of the myocardial infarction materially...